Resources for Web Professionals

We believe that with YikeSite, life should be made as easy as possible for web professionals.

First and foremost, this means having a simple way to get your sites moving with the elements that you need. You can get going with our out-of-the-box template sites. With these, you can customize just the way with which you would like to start your sites. They are full websites that you specify as template sites. Then, easily extend the functionality through customizable modules or integrate in other Software as a Service (SAAS) applications.

We have thought a lot about and how we can make the software so that it is easy to do the right things just by doing everyday tasks.

All of this will let you create websites faster. However, there is one thing that helps in that regard more than the efficienies of the software — using a content driven approach to creating websites.

Finally, if you have any questions about the development process, or how we can help you better manage your website, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Template Sites

A good starting point for your websites

Template sites are a good way of getting your website project off to a good start. A number of template sites are available to cover a variety of layouts and functions.

Template sites are a combination of two basic components: site pages and a theme. A template site has all of the functionality of a regular site with a special flag that makes it available under the "Templates" tab of your dashboard.

Site Pages

Create any number of pages in your site, with whatever content and modules you want to have. All of it gets copied when you create a new site for a great starting point.

Theme

The second component of the template site is the Theme. The theme is the collection of HTML, CSS, Javascript and Modules that control the look and feel of the website. The theme controls things like location and size of the header, footer and sidebar, what kind of menu system will be used, and how the website will be styled. See our theme documentation for more information. The free template sites that we offer utilize the popular Bootstrap framework, so that the websites are responsive, and there are lots of resources available if you want to customize it. Of course, you are free to use whatever CSS framework you are comfortable with.

YikeSite comes standard with a number of templates that you can use or feel free to create your own templates. If you feel that we should have a template that is not there, let us know and we will see how we can help.

Search Engine Optimization

YikeSite helps get you started with search engine optimization for your clients. Do you realize how advantageous that is? SEO is an incredible set of tools you can use to help your clients expand their reach. It works, it’s not going to stop working anytime soon, and it’s cost effective.

SEO is not just about robots, sitemaps and code. It’s applied marketing. So if you don’t understand how to be a marketer, you are not utilizing SEO to its fullest potential. YIkeSite will help you with that. We are going to let you know what things you can do to make your site better. We take care of the technical stuff - having good URL structure, descriptive meta tags, and effective site navigation - but also the marketing stuff like promoting your website with blog posts, social media, and engaging in collaboration with similar websites. When your small business becomes larger, we can help you hire an SEO expert for maximum effectiveness.

These skills in practice will help customers connect to your website worldwide. You will create content that provides value to your customers, that they will be able to locate seamlessly.

Unique, accurate page titles

When looking for a page, a search engine will first compare the title of the page to that of the requested search. This also means that it is best to do this for each page on your website so as to direct the searcher to the page that contains the information that they are looking for.

What YikeSite does

YikeSite automatically places the name you give the page into the title field. You can also modify this to include other information through the theme; for example, using your tag line on the home page.

What you can do

Accurately describe the page's content - Choose a page name that effectively communicates the contents of the page.

Create unique page names - Create a unique title for each page on your website for easy navigability.

Use brief, but descriptive titles - Titles that are too long will only have a portion that shows up in the search engine. Also, a short, descriptive title is far quicker to read.

Description meta tag

A meta tag is the summary of the page that is shown in the search engine underneath the page title and can be helpful for the searcher to deem whether or not the information they are looking for is there.

What YikeSite does

YikeSite allows you to add description tags to each page of your site. To add a description tag, follow these steps:

Enter the page Admin.

Click on the Settings subtab.

Enter your text into the Page Description field.

Save Description.

What you can do

Accurately summarize the page's content - A description that is both informative and short is best. If it is too long, the searcher will likely skim over it.

Use unique descriptions for each page - Using descriptions that are specific to each page instead of a standard description helps the searcher determine whether or not the page is relevant to their search.

Good URL structure

You should create URLs that aren't too long, but are descriptive. They should not contain random characters like ?, = and & or random numbers such as 3592. Search engine robots view this as gibberish that is both confusing and unfriendly. Google and other search engines will most likely ignore these types of URLs. Also, your website's directory structure should be simple and easy to navigate.

What YikeSite does

Uses lower case words from the page title to build URLs. This means the URLs are descriptive and do not contain gibberish.

Creates a website with a simple hierarchy with straightforward navigation.

Allows you to smoothly move pages around and create a simple organizational structure that is easy to navigate and reflects the message you want to convey.

What you can do

Choose appropriate page names - Choosing a relevant page name means creating a suitable URL. This helps both the search engine and those using the search engine to distinguish between whether or not the page is relevant.

Create the content of your website before the design - Creating content before design ensures that the organization of your website reflects the message you want to communicate. This will be reflected in your website's hierarchy.

Easy navigation

Search engines generally look to see if your website is well organized. They decide whether or not it has easy navigation and how users will react and behave when they visit.

What YikeSite does

Allows you to create a naturally flowing hierarchy.

Uses text for navigation rather than pictures (you can also use images if you prefer).

Supplies visual cues.

Provides site map and google site map options for better indexing.

Shows another page if a section of the URL directory is removed, because every link within a hierarchy has content.

Displays a 404 page if a page is not found, with a link that redirects to your home page.

Best practices for site navigation

Create a naturally flowing hierarchy - Make a smooth transition from general to specific information.

Use mostly text for navigation - Use text rather than images from the linked page to allow visitors to decide whether or not to follow a link.

Use "breadcrumb" navigation - This allows the visitor to see where they came from if they find themselves lost.

Put an HTML sitemap page on your site - This can be very useful if you have a large site and think visitors might occasionally lose their bearings.

Consider what happens when a user removes part of your URL - Some visitors will drop part of the URL and enter more general information than they have been supplied with.

Have a useful 404 page - When visitors enter a URL that is non-existent, instead of displaying a blank screen, tell them that they have entered the wrong URL or that the page no longer exists, and then redirect them.

What you can do

Take the time to create a quality site - The organization of your site is very important as far as page indexing. YikeSite recommends creating the content of your site in advance of the design to ensure that you have navigation that truly represents the message you want to deliver.

Make sure there are not too many links on one page - Too many links on a page make it hard to read. Only link to important words or phrases. Search engines may penalize you if you have too many links on a page, as they may think you are trying to cheat them.

Make sure hierarchy reflects the message you want to convey - Northern Village recommends that the main menu items on your site convey an "at a glance" overview of your primary message. Generally, the fewer number of menu choices there are, the stronger your message.

Quality content and services

This is pretty straightforward. For visitors to feel satisfied, you need to have good quality material on your website. This will increase traffic as users spread knowledge of your site through the web and by word of mouth.

What YikeSite does

Makes your website simple to use and easy to update.

Uses CSS to style the site for consistency throughout, including an easy to read font.

What you can do

Stay organized around each topic - Make it easy to tell when one subject area ends and another begins. Otherwise, visitors may get confused.

Use relevant language - Keywords play a large role in how search engines choose which sites to display. The more keywords you use, the more variety of visitors you will get.

Provide fresh, unique content - Writing new website content encourages your existing visitors to return and will help bring new visitors as well.

Offer exclusive content or services - This is where you need to come up with ideas that will draw visitors to your website and allow it to grow.

Create content primarily for your users, not search engines - Designing your site around search engine results will not work if your content doesn't cater to people's needs.

Consider hiring an editor - Quality content is an important part of any first-class website. Hiring an editor ensures that content is organized by topic, language and formatting is consistent, and your text is free from embarrassing typos and grammatical errors.

Better anchor text

The text that appears in a link (i.e. anchor text) is important because users want to know if they should follow the link and search engines need to understand what the page is about.

What YikeSite does

Formats link text through CSS. This means links fit smoothly into your website's pages and are easy to spot.

Formats internal and external links the same way.

Provides a simple way to add links—whether they are internal, external, email or file links.

What you can do

Choose descriptive text - The link text should give the reader an idea of where the link will take them. Do not place unrelated text in a link—search engines do not like that.

Write concise text - It is best to use short but descriptive content containing a few words or a short phrase.

Optimized use of images

The name of an image, along with the "alt" attribute, tells the search engine what the image is about. If a visitor is unable to access the images on your site the "alt" attribute will display text instead. A good file name is also a good reminder to you of what the image is, especially if there are multiple images on a page.

What YikeSite does

Prompts you to choose a title for the image when uploading.

Enters alt tag in image dialogue screen.

Keeps images in one directory.

Good practices for images

Use brief descriptive filenames and alt text - The filenames and alt text are best when they are short and descriptive of the image.

Supply alt text when using images as links - If you make an image into a link, filling out the alt text helps search engines to understand what it is that they are linking to.

Use commonly supported filetypes - JPEG, GIF, PNG, AND BMP, are the most common image formats.

Appropriate heading tags

If used properly, heading tags really help your website's overall organizational flow and also tell readers when a topic transition is occurring.

What YikeSite does

Places the main heading (<h1>) automatically at the top of a new page and defaults to whatever name you assigned to the page.

Allows additional headings to be added in the Source Editor.

Good practices for heading tags

Imagine you're writing an outline - You need to plan where you are going to put the headers and sub-headers.

Use headings sparingly across the page - Too many heading tags can make it confusing for the reader, so think this through carefully.

Take time to think up good headings - Headings give the reader a quick overview of what your content is about and search engines pay special attention to them. Headings should accurately describe the content that follows.

Promoting your website

The number of backlinks or "inbound links" that your website has is one of the most important factors determining your site's search engine ranking, popularity and importance. The key to backlinks is relevancy. Backlinks from authoritative sites on a given topic are highly valuable.

It should also be noted that building too many backlinks over a short period of time can get a website's ranking penalized, and in extreme cases, de-indexed altogether. Backlinks or "inbound links" to your website will gradually build as your site gains traffic and popularity. You can help this along by building backlinks from other websites through various promotional techniques. Slow, steady progress is the key here.

What YikeSite does

Integrates a blog seamlessly so that it becomes part of your website.

Provides a promotional link to your website.

What you can do

Blog about new content or services - Writing a blog post is a great way to let visitors know that new content is on your website.

Don't forget about offline promotion - Putting effort into offline promotion of your website is just as important as online promotion.

Know about social media sites - Sites like Facebook and Twitter that are built around user interaction and sharing make it easy to create a "buzz" surrounding your site.

Reach out to related communities - Since it is more likely than not that there are websites that have much of the same basic content as yours, or closely related content, opening up communications with these sites can be very beneficial to you.

Webmaster tools

Major search engines provide free tools for webmasters. They help webmasters to better understand what needs to be tweaked to obtain better search results. Well known webmaster tools include: Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo! Site Explorer, and Live Search Webmaster Tools.

What you can do

Review the tools listed above to see which one(s) suit you best.

Web analytics

Web analytics

Web analytics programs are valuable tools for gauging your web traffic because they track visitors' journeys once they arrive on your website. For example, they measure the number of visitors, page views, pages per visit, bounce rates, and the average time on your website.

Analytics applications can also provide data that helps with your market research, such as measuring the results of recent advertising campaigns, and which of your landing pages are most effective.

What YikeSite does

Allows placement of your custom Google Analytics code into any Village CMS theme.

Provides sample code within the generic theme where you can add your Google Analytics UA number, or any other analytics code.

What you can do

Review the web analytics programs to see which one(s) suit you best.

In "Content Driven Websites”, content becomes the most important aspect of website production. By focusing on the content, you can create a website in a shorter amount of time that will be more effective and have a stronger design.

Step 1 - Define the goals for your website

The first and most important part of creating an effective website is to establish realistic goals of what you want to achieve. Think about why you want the website in the first place. Some reasons might be:

Providing an introduction to your company or organization with a "digital brochure" website

Don’t take this preparatory process lightly—it isn’t easy to do. Often, there are competing interests, and many day-to-day activities to keep you distracted from concentrating on the big picture. You may want the assistance of a business or strategy consultant, or a website producer.

If you are pleased with the direction in which your site preparations are going, you can move on to Step 2 - Organize your Content .

Step 2 - Organize your content

Now that you have set your goals, gather your available content and start putting it into a website editing software, which allows you to easily organize the content within the website.

Some point to keep in mind:

If you have an existing website, move the whole of the website over. It is a straight-forward operation to cut and paste all the pages in the existing format (without having to decide what to save and what to throw out).

Create a website structure that tells the story based on the goals of the website

Review the website from time to time. Often you can find interesting new perspectives and insight on how the website can be organized, possibly with better ways of achieving your goals or delivering a clearer message. Ask the following questions:

Does the content match the plan? Are we improving on the plan?

What are the weak areas that need work?

Which areas should be trimmed?

Has a certain aspect of the site emerged that should be emphasized?

Is there a better way of organizing the website based on what we have put up?

You may consider hiring a writer to help you with the content creation process. It is good to have someone with an outside perspective to write about what you do. Also, if stock photos are not sufficient for your website, a photographer or graphic designer can help.

Step 3 - Create design to support goals and content

You have now uploaded most of your content, organized it, had a few ah-ha moments in putting it together and are generally pleased with the overall flow of your website. Now you can add some spice to your message.

Review the website with your graphic designer. Show him or her how the website meets the goals that you have set for it and point out some interesting elements to which attention could be drawn. Focus on the main message, but also on other, perhaps smaller yet important bits that might peak your visitors’ interest.

The more organized the website is before you hand it over to the designer, the more freedom and space he or she will have to creatively bring your goals to life within your parameters.

On the other hand, completing the design before the content is fleshed out could substantially limit how impactful you could make that content—a better organization could be ruled out. Alternatively, a new design would need to be generated and re-implemented, adding cost to the project.

Still, the right design may not be crafted on the first try. Work together with the designer until you arrive at a design that works.

Once the design is finalized, hand it over to the technical people to move your project to Step 4 - Implement Website. You’re only one step away from a website that complies with industry standards and is search engine-friendly.

Step 4 - Implement website

Fortunately, implementing a website is not nearly as arduous, expensive and time-consuming as in days past. Using online editing tools (also known as content management systems) such as Village CMS means that you can edit content independently of the design. In addition, templates, search engine optimization and analytics can automatically be built into the website without the editor needing to perform specific tasks.

Implementation is now often the least time-consuming aspect of building a site—it can take only few days, rather than weeks or months.

Websites can also offer multiple services such as invoicing, shopping carts, simple or complex forms, and mailing lists, all available through the use of "Software as a Service" options. From the user’s perspective these services all appear to be on one website.

Perhaps most importantly, this approach ensures that we no longer have to burden overworked web designers or developers with simple maintenance tasks such as uploading or editing content, and editors do not have to learn complicated or inflexible software programs to update a website.

Congratulations. You are on your way to giving birth to a brand new website.

How YikeSite embraces content driven websites

Yikesite has been designed with a content-driven approach at its core. Most of this revolves around making sure that as a web professional, you can concentrate on the content at the beginning of a project. Our Template Sites are designed using black, white and gray. So, you can get the function of what you need in a site, but you are not putting color in until your message has been refined.

Next, we make it very easy to add content to your site. Using the simple page creation, you can build out a site map of a complex website in a matter of minutes. For a given page, type in the name of the subpages and hit enter. A new page is created and automatically appears in the menu system. To edit a page, click on the edit link at the bottom of the page. Change your content. Save. Done.

Once you have the majority of pages in the site, reorganize the site to your liking. Go to the page you want to move. Click admin, then the move button. Move the page, all images, files, modules and subpages to where you want it. Again, the website menu is automatically updated. If you want to experiment with a radically different organization, you can always duplicate your site, so you can go back to where you were if it doesn't work.

Once you have your website organized the way you like it, you can now show it to a designer. They will know exactly what to do graphically to enforce the main messages of your website. Implement, and you will have one happpy client on your hands.

Support Services

At YikeSite we understand that as a Website Professional you want to be as self-sufficient as possible. However, sometimes you may need a bit of help. Perhaps you are a designer who needs some assistance with some implementation, or a content creator in need of some design. You might need some help moving a site over or you are simply overloaded and need some help getting work done.

FAQ

Who provides support to my customers?

You will provide first level support to your clients. You are welcome to contact us to help with any clarifications you might need.

Can I use my own wildcard domain name?

Absolutely. When you first signup as a reseller you get a YOURCMS.yikesite.com domain name. However, you also get an unbranded domain name like YOURCMS.customerhost.com which you can use temporarily until you point your domain name.

If you don't have a wildcard domain name pointed, your customers will get a URL like CUSTOMER.clientwebsite.net. When you point your domain name, they will signup to CUSTOMER.<your-domain-name>.

Most domain name registrars will allow you to point a wildcard domain name at our server. What you need to do is make a CNAME for your * wildcard to app.yikesite.com or an A record to 208.78.96.162. Some registrars will charge you additional to do this but registrars like GoDaddy will do this for free.

Which browsers do you support?

Any website created with YikeSite can output designs that work well in any browser. The extent of which browsers/platforms you support depends on how well you set up the CSS/HTML. The default template we provide is tested in the major browsers.

The admin and edit features of YikeSite have restrictions on which browsers you can use. We recommend Firefox, Chrome or Safari (Mac or PC). They're free and work great.

Do you offer domain registration or e-mail hosting?

Not at this time. There are a good handful of domain name registrars that will not only let you point your domain name at us and will also host your e-mail.

I know how to use Photoshop, but I'm not a programmer. How do I get my design set up in YikeSite?

YikeSite is a service aimed at web developers and designers and as such requires basic knowledge of HTML/CSS to edit templates. If you would rather, you can hire us as your technical resource. All you need to do is send us your layered graphic file and we will take your design and make it into a website.

Is there a free trial?

We offer the YikeSite Website Dashboard free of charge, and the ability to host websites for free while you are building them, so you have the opportunity to try out the software before you commit.

Can I install YikeSite on my own server?

No, YikeSite is only available as a hosted service. But you can edit your site in YikeSite and publish to your server with one-click. This is useful if you want to use YikeSite as a staging server but host the actual files on a separate server.

Are there any long-term contracts or sign-up fees?

All of our plans are month-to-month. There are no sign-up fees.

Can I cancel my account at any time?

Yes. There are no cancellation fees to worry about either.

Who is behind this YikeSite thing?

Our company is YikeSoftware Inc. and we have offices in beautiful Vancouver, BC and charming Guelph, ON Canada. Like, how's it goin' eh?

Can I easily transfer my current websites over to YikeSite?

Yes, we will move your websites over from what you currently have to YikeSite. Contact us to discuss your needs.

Can I write my content in an word processor and upload it to YikeSite?

Yes. If you or your clients have content in a word processor such as Word, you can upload it to YikeSite! YikeSite also has an inline editor built into the CMS. You can also use Markdown, if you prefer.

Can YikeSite take on continuous updates like blog posts?

Yes. There are several modules that will let you pull full or partial subpages to the parent page, including FAQ and blog modules. See modules for more information.

Does YikeSite have plugins and widgets?

You can paste any plugin code directly into YikeSite and we will also provide and continually develop widgets. Let us know if there is anything particular you seek!

What about security? Is YikeSite on a secure server?

Yes.

Can I make responsive websites with YikeSite?

Yes! Choose from our template sites that are based on twitter bootstrap, which are a great starting point for a responsive website.

Can I make accessible websites with YikeSite?

Yes. You can make any website in YikeSite accessible using the correct colour contrasts. Drop us an email if you want to learn more about this for your websites.

Can you track what the users are doing?

There is basic tracking of users. On any page you can see who last modified that page. Please let us know if you have greater requirements in this regard.

Can I have FTP or SSH access?

YikeSite is a hosted solution, so there is no ftp or ssh access to the server.